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The year 2010 is just around the corner and will soon be knocking on our doors. Also in 2010, some U.S. residents can expect U.S. Census workers to be knocking on their doors as well. What are your rights and what are some common identity thefts scams that you may encounter as the census takes place?

The U.S. census, held every ten years, is an attempt to attain to a nationwide headcount of every person that resides in the United States.

Why is the U.S. Census important?

The information collected from the U.S. census is used not only by the federal government policy makers but also by educators and community leaders to make imports decisions including the distribution of resources and in some cases redistricting.

The last two U.S. Censuses missed counting millions of residents, particularly minorities and low-income household. This is critical because undercounting may reduce funding for important institutions such as hospitals, education, child care programs, veteran's services, rural development, environmental issues, transportation or even disaster preparedness.

An accurate census count is very important and yet citizens need to their rights when it comes to participating in the U.S. Census 2010. The Census Bureau attributes undercounting to many reasons including a lack of understanding of the census as well as a general mistrust of the government.

How does the Census work?

Census workers are already working to collect information. Law enforcement has concerns that con artists may take advantage of the census process to imitate census workers and obtain information under false pretenses. It is important for citizens to know what they should expect and what SHOULD NOT happen when a census workers comes to your door.

Census Workers who knock on your door should have 4 items with them:
-A census worker badge
-A handheld device
-A Census Bureau canvas bag
-A confidentially notice

Always ask to see an I.D. and never invite anyone into your home that you do not know.

Census workers at this time are only verifying addresses for later mailing. They can ask for a name, age, gender and race. They may also ask for a "salary range."

They should not ask for nor should you give to anyone:
-Your social security number
-Bank account information
-Credit card information
-Donations

Census workers may contact you in person, by mail or even by phone but Census workers WILL NOT contact anyone by email. Do not click on any links or attachments that are supposedly from the Census Bureau or you'll be at risks for identity theft or computer malware.

If you receive a phishing e-mail that says it is from the Census Bureau, do not open it but report it here: itso.fraud.reporting@census.gov.

If you have any questions about a census survey, a census worker at your door or a phone call from a census worker, you can call you regional census office and speak to a representative. To find phone numbers for census regional offices visit: http://www.census.gov/field/www/

The Better Business Bureau (BBB) is advising people to, "Be cooperative, but cautious, so as not to become a victim of fraud or identity theft."

What are your rights concerning participating in the U.S. Census?

From the U.S. Census Bureau website:
-The census is mandated by the U.S. Constitution.
-The next census is in 2010.
-Your participation in the census is required by law.
-It takes less than 10 minutes to complete.
-Federal law protects the personal information you share during the census.

But do I have to open my door to a census worker?

We called the U.S. Census Bureau customer service number to ask just this question. The Census customer service representative assured us that the answer is "no."

"It's your house, you don't have to answer your door to anybody," she said but she went on to say that if the U.S. Census Bureau already has your address then "you'll get a survey in the mail and if you fill out the survey and send it back in, then no one will come to your house anyway."

So the U.S. Census Bureau will only come knocking on your door if they don't have your address on file or know who lives in the residence OR if you fail to send back the survey.

Last year over 8 million people in the United States had their identities stolen. Just how many were pitchers for the Florida Marlins? Better yet, how many had a "hands on" role in catching their identity thief? This has been an interesting week in identity theft news.

This week in Arizona state police made a traffic stop on a Phoenix freeway after observing a low tire. The driver produced a license with the name Enrique Calero Carrion. The 41-year-old, driver, Oscar Corral was arrested for identity theft after officers learned that the Puerto Rican driver's license was fake and he also produced a forged social security card. Corral was later identified through fingerprints and a criminal history check.

Never heard of Enrique Calero Carrion? Only a handful more seemed to have heard of the Florida Marlins right handed relief pitcher Kiko Calero. Enrique Calero Carrion is the full name of the RHP.

The real Calero learned of the arrest from his agent while in New York on Thursday and spoke about the incident on Friday before the three-game series against the Nationals.

Calero explained that in 2000, while still in his native Puerto Rico, that his wallet containing his driver's license and credit cards was stolen. Calero cancelled his credit cards and got a new license but did not change his social security number. In Spanish, Kiko Calero explained, "I didn't think anything would happen."

Credit checks show that no one has tried to take out any loans in Calero's name but still he's concerned.

"Everything is fine, but who knows?" Calero said. "There can be a bunch of people who also bought [the copies]."

In July, a similar incident occurred in Illinois. A man produced a stolen license during a traffic stop that belonged to Miami Dolphins top draft pick Vontae Davis. Vontae Davis had also had his wallet stolen.

Of course you don't have to be a professional athlete to have your identity stolen and a Seattle customer service rep from J.C. Penny shows you don't have to be a superstar to catch your identity thief either. Not many people can count on having this kind of a Freaky Friday experience either.

Michelle McCambridge, 23, became the victim of identity theft in January. When a woman approached McCambridge at the customer service desk where she worked and tried to open a credit card account using McCambridge's own identity, she kept her cool and ultimately helped police break up a ring of identity thieves.

McCambridge was able to stay composed and alert store security. They couldn't arrest her identity immediately but they were able to get surveillance video that led to several arrests for victimizing at least 39 people. "Out of how many customer-service desks, out of how many registers she could have gone to, and she had to come to me?" McCambridge said. "It was fate."

"I'm very proud of her," said Joseph Velling, a special agent for the Social Security Administration. "It was heroic."

Traffic stops seem to be one way identity thieves are caught these days. Not so many are walking right up to their victims and admitting their guilt. I have to wonder, was Michelle McCambridge wearing a name tag?

Have you seen "Personal Antivirus" software on your computer? This is definitely not an antivirus program you want to use. What is it and where does it come from? It's actually a rogue software that uses fear to scam you and then continues to cause you problems for a long time to come. Find out about this antivirus program that does nothing to protect your computer and a whole lot to harm it.

http://www.xp-vista.com/spyware-removal/personal-antivirus.Imagine my surprise when I turned on my husband's computer the other night, to find a pop up window that appears to be running a scan and then quickly (faster than any other antivirus program I have every used or tested) tells me I have over 25 spyware, malware and Trojan viruses on my computer. It's very convincing, evoking the ever scary word "Trojan" and giving me a list of so called viruses on my computer that are XXX.exe. A big screen appears and states that Personal Antivirus has detected all these problems with my computer and if I could just complete the registration process they can solve all my problems and remove all the spyware. Here's the catch, Personal Antivirus can do none of those things. It is actually a rogue software program, which disguises itself as a reliable security tool. It is neither a security tool nor is it really detecting harmful programs on your computer.

Curious, I click the registration page, and find that I have to purchase this handy dandy software that somehow got on my husband's computer before it will remove the so called viruses. Of course my husband doesn't appreciate the 12:30 AM wakeup call that asks him how this "crap" got on his computer. He says, "I thought it came through with the Windows update and was just trying to make me purchase antivirus software so I ignored it." Well he was half right.

Personal Antivirus does "piggy back" in during a download from your computer or sneaks in while you are visiting a website. The programming is very similar in nature, design and when you look at it, it really does seem to be a Windows XP security feature. But here's how you can tell that it's not.

1. In most cases, if you have already installed an antivirus system on your computer another one cannot function or override the existing software. For example, if I am using Trend and try to install Norton, without uninstalling Trend I will receive error messages and the installation will not complete.

2. Most reputable antivirus programs will not download to your computer without your help, such as accessing the page and taking you through download steps, not even free program such as AVG can just magically appear and scan your computer.

3. If you are currently running reputable software program to detect viruses you should not have another program telling you that you have X number of viruses on your computer. Yes, detection may vary from software to software and depend on your last update, but there should not be that many variations in the number of viruses, spyware or malware on your computer.

Personal Antivirus uses fear and manipulation in order to run its "scam." If you believe this program to be true, you end up providing your name, address, credit card number, create a user name and password. Since many people use the same user name and password for multiple accounts you have now given away all the information anyone needs to commit credit card fraud, create a new identity and harm your credit in many other ways.
If left alone this software does the following:

 Changes your browser settings directing you to sites that continue to encourage you to purchase this so called security software
 Shows commercial advertisements
 Allows pop ups ads to sneak through your firewall
 Stays resident in the background, possibly recording keystrokes

This software needs to be removed immediately as leaving it on your computer and ignoring it can still cause you frustration and damage to your systems. There are several sites offering information on how to remove Personal Antivirus from your computer, I recommend XP Vista.com Spyware Removal. While the information provided from these sites appears to be the same, I used the XP Vista site, feeling more secure about the knowledge there, since it was an actual Windows XP site. Trying to remove manually takes quite a bit of computer knowledge, so you may want to find some help, from someone who knows about locating and removing files as well as creating restore points and uninstalling programs.

Other sites and video's offered a downloadable remover tool, but I can't vouch for either of them, as I didn't try them and have no knowledge of their reliability.

It took me a great deal of time and effort (3AM and I was off to bed knowing my computer was fixed) but it was worth it. Just remember not matter how good your antivirus software is, nothing beats knowledge about what scams are out there as well as general information about how the systems on your computer works. Had I not known what I did about my desktop computer as well as scams and antivirus programs, I may have done as my husband did and simply ignored it, or as so many others did, and purchased it.

Email urban myth or truth in fiction? Cash back debit cards scams and stores. Is it possible to have cash back charged to your debit card, but the money goes into the cashiers pocket? Absolutely, find out how a Target cashier was caught scamming, how my friend found out about her cash back purchase and what you can do to protect yourself.

Visiting a social networking site, a discussion was being held over paper versus plastic, and I am not talking about bags, but writing checks versus using your debit card to make purchases. The person who started the discussion was upset because someone took too much time in line writing a check for their purchase, recording the check and moving on. They thought this was "rude" and that checks should be done away with while shopping. I disagree, simply because of the dangers of using a debit card - dangers that can include cash back scams.
The other day a friend of mine sends me an email, which at first I thought was just another "forwarded" message that makes the rounds and that quite often is a scam or electronic "urban myth" that I could ignore. The funny thing about this particular message was at the bottom, she said, "No joke, I checked my receipt after shopping at Wal-Mart and the amount was $20.00 over."

What was this email about? Cash back scams. Apparently she had made a purchase at Wal-Mart and at the register was told that the do it yourself card scan was broken and the register person would "run the card" for her. After getting home and looking at the receipt to record the purchase she realized that she had been charged $20.00 too much, a charge that was seen by the use of the "cash back" label on the receipt. She contacted Wal-Mart and is happy with the resolution of the problem, however, thought she should tell others exactly how easily a cash back scam could occur.

The funny thing is she had received a forwarded message warning about the same type of scam, but Target was the store in question. She ignored it, wanting to check it out on Snopes.com but there was no need; she found out that in her circumstances it was true. I would much rather have found out that it was forwarded junk mail by a well meaning friend or family member.

Maybe this email warning regarding debit and credit card cash back on purchases has some level of truth to it. In January 2009, a Target employee was arrested for working with a friend an accomplice as a result of scamming the store for over $1,000.00. The scam was two part; first ringing up items and then doubling coupons to that the price was less (and in most cases free) and secondly using a the cashiers Target debit card and requesting cash back on a purchase, and receiving greater than the amount of the requested. For example they would do a cash back request for $20.00, but the cashier would give her accomplice $40.00. Pretty stupid when you think about it, at the end of the shift the drawer is not going to total, do that enough times and you are bound to come under suspicion.

Debit cards have become the normal method of completing a purchase while shopping both online and in brick and mortar stores. Many people, like those on the discussion board, think it's rude to use anything else. Others just like the convenience of swiping their card and being on their way. Admittedly, I use my debit card on a regular basis, because I am more likely to spend if I carry cash and I hate writing checks. It is also easy, fast and you can get cash back making a trip to the bank (and those hefty ATM charges) unnecessary. But consumers need to remember that debit cards do not have the same levels of protection against theft and fraud that credit cards do. Not all "plastics" are equal. "Debit card scams are a nightmare," warns Ed Mierzwinski, consumer program director for the U.S. Public Interest Research Group (PIRG) in Washington, D.C. "You don't get the same consumer protection as with a credit card."

According to federal law, your liability for unauthorized transactions with a credit card is limited to $50.00. But that limit only applies to a debit card if you notify the within two business days after the theft occurs. If you don't you could be charged up to $500 in unauthorized card purchases. If you fail to report the bogus charges within 60 days after your bank statement is mailed, your liability is unlimited.

So, how can we continue to have the convenience and ease of use we crave and be protected from fraud and theft?
- If a cashier offers to run your debit card for you look at your receipt immediately, make sure that no unauthorized charges are listed, especially those for cash back amounts.
- Use checks whenever possible, fill it out while in line with date and store then all you need to do is add the amount and your signature.
- When your debit card purchase is done, be sure to look at that final question . . . "is this amount correct?" and make sure that no additional cash back charges have appeared.
- Lastly, be sure to come home and check your debit card purchases online within 48 hours. Make sure the amount is as it should be and that no unauthorized charges have occurred.

Urban myth or true crime, either way, I can take a minute to look at my receipt at the end of the purchase, can you?